Ursula

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Quote

“I admit that in the past I've been a nasty... they weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch.”

―Ursula

Ursula is the main antagonist of Disney's 1989 animated feature film, The Little Mermaid. She is a villainous cecaelia sea witch. After being banished from Atlantica by her longstanding rival, King Triton, a scorned Ursula vowed to exact vengeance by harnessing the power of the king's trident and installing herself as ruler of all the ocean.

To accomplish her goals, Ursula strikes deals with unfortunate merfolk that will (supposedly) make their dreams come true, but are covertly designed to advance Ursula's own ambitions. Princess Ariel, being one such merfolk, trades her voice to Ursula in exchange for human legs. Should Ariel fail to uphold her end of the deal by winning the love of Prince Eric, she will be bound to Ursula, and thusly used as a bargaining chip for Triton's crown.

Modeled after drag queens and theatrical personalities of the like, Ursula's fervent confidence and flamboyance have made her one of the most popular and influential of all the Disney Villains. She remains one of the franchise's primary members in the years following her debut.

Contents

Background

Ursula belongs to a race of creatures known as Cecaelia. She states through a monologue that she once lived in the royal palace of King Triton, the king of the underwater city of Atlantica. She boasts that her previous life was lavish and included such spoils as "fantastical feasts." Power-hungry and devilish, even in the past, Ursula garnered a disreputable reputation amongst underwater dwellers. She was widely known as the "Sea Witch", an alias she accepted in stride.

By orders of the king, Ursula was eventually banished from Atlantica and made her home in the remains of a leviathan lined with a garden of writhing polyps. These polyps were merfolk who had previously gone to Ursula for help but found themselves unable to fulfill their side of the bargain, leading Ursula to claim them as her own and adding them to her collection. Ursula laments her distaste for her living conditions, despite having maintained all of her powerful black magic. From her secluded lair, she awaits the chance to get her revenge on Triton and become Queen of Atlantica by stealing the king's trident, an all-powerful weapon that grants its user control over the seas and its foils. Ursula is aided by her two moray eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, whom she refers to as her "babies".

Development

Ursula

Ursula is based on the "sea witch" character in Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Mermaid". In the original story, the sea witch is a neutral enabler, but for Disney's animated adaptation, the character was modified into a full-fledged antagonist and plays a larger role in the overall story.

During pre-production, Ursula was not originally designed as a Cecaelia; a legendary hybrid of human and octopus. It was thought that she would be another species of sea creatures, such as a rockfish or lion fish, or would have a snake-like appearance, as revealed in The Disney Sketchbook. The production team then saw a documentary about octopi and decided that their multiple arms and imposing appearance would be perfect for the character they were creating. Ursula is only drawn with six tentacles, due to the studio's budget and difficulty in coordinating eight tentacles (though she has eight limbs if you include her arms). Pat Carroll has stated that this makes her a squid, though biologically she still resembles an octopus far more than any other sea-creature. Moreover, a squid has ten tentacles, not six. Although, unlike most Cecaelia, Ursula is very obese.. The character has been compared to Madame Medusa from The Rescuers in terms of style, dramatics, and choice of minions.

Pat Carroll, Ursula's voice actress, envisioned the character as "part Shakespearean actress, with all the flair, flamboyance and theatricality, and part used-car salesman with a touch of con artist." Carroll, who is a contralto, deliberately deepened her voice for the role.

Vanessa

During development, Vanessa's, Ursula's human alter ego, story arc went through radical changes as revealed by a leaked script online. Originally, Vanessa's method of hypnotizing Eric was different; instead of suppressing his free will and eliminating his capability to display emotion, she let him have a broader range of emotion and gave him some free will. The point of this sort of hypnosis was to influence Eric in Vanessa's direction and accept her over Ariel on his own, emphasizing deception over the brute force from the final film.

After Vanessa hypnotizes Eric, he introduces Ariel to her on the morning of the third day, announcing that they will be married by sunset. This is vastly different from the final film where Ariel eavesdrops on their announcement before running away, never getting a good idea at who Vanessa is until Scuttle tells her. To better conceal herself due to her being so close to Ariel, Vanessa wears a scarf in the original script as a way to hide her nautilus necklace and not arouse suspicion from Ariel. And when Ariel runs away, Eric is about to run after her, but Vanessa pulls him back and kisses him; using Eric's fake love for her as a way to intimidate him.

The scene inside the cabin is exactly the same as the film, but the wedding itself has noticeable differences. In the original, Vanessa was actually eager to marry Eric and was impatient about the wedding being done before sunset suggesting some ulterior motive aside from just taking Ariel. In the original script, she also gets to actually say "I do" unlike in the final product.

Vanessa isn't able to kiss Eric again, though, as the ceremony is disrupted by an explosion off the side of the ship and Scuttle's small army shows up and begins to attack Vanessa. Vanessa fights back in the original version, much like in the film, but quickly stops when she realizes she is blowing her cover as a sweet innocent girl. She then begs Eric to protect her, which he does. Since Scuttle can't get close to Vanessa, he intends to reveal her true form to Eric by bringing up the mirror from her cabin. He crashes into a pole and the mirror breaks, but Eric is able to see Vanessa for what she is the reflection of the water the sea creatures brought on board the ship. This breaks the illusion and he rejects her for Ariel. At this point, Vanessa's voice returns to sounding like Ursula's, presumably because the spell has been broken, and Eric and Ariel are about to embrace. Much like in the final movie, the sun sets before they can kiss, and Vanessa turns back into Ursula, dragging Ariel back with her under the sea.

In this ending, Ariel does not get her voice back until the very end, which changes the dynamic of the scene entirely. No explanation was ever offered as to why this half of the ending was changed.

On a separate note, early storyboard concept art revealed that Vanessa and Eric would have originally been married at the castle instead of on a ship, with Ariel lurking above in observance. This change may have been made to add a sense of urgency for Ariel to stop the wedding by having it take place somewhere else. It also may have been done to create a better transition between the wedding scene and the final battle underwater.

Vanessa's role in the film is inspired by the original Andersen tale. In that story, after the prince has been rescued by the mermaid, he is found on the beach by a princess whom he believes to have saved him. Later on, after the mermaid becomes human, she discovers that the prince will be marrying the maiden. In the end, the maiden marries the prince while the mermaid (who chose not to kill the prince despite the urging of her sisters) dies and ascends to a spiritual rebirth. The maiden, like the Sea Witch, was also a neutral character rather than a villain.

In the book, the maiden does not speak and is presented as being sprightly and innocent. She is very much in love with the prince, though, snuggling up to him while not being possessive of him, as she did not object to his friendship with the mermaid. Vanessa's facade is based on imitating this behavior while snickering behind others' backs, eliminating the presence of anything innocent.

Personality

By nature, Ursula was very dark in tone, with a wicked sense of humor. After her banishment from Atlantica, the sea witch established herself as a physical beacon of hope towards unfortunate merpeople, allowing them to strike deals and business propositions that would supposedly result in their happiness, should they successfully fulfill their end of the bargain. During such deals, she speaks in a grandmotherly tone, as if her only concern is the satisfaction of her customers. This makes her schemes easier to fall for, though should she feel a deal is going nowhere, she resorts to pressuring her victims into accepting her offer, additionally portraying herself as their last attempt at making their dreams come true. However, if Ariel's deal is to be believed, Ursula sadistically ensures her customers fail at upholding their end of the deal, resulting in their souls being forever in her possessions and their bodies becoming permanent members of her living garden, as polyps. The motivation of such practices are never revealed for any individual other than Ariel, whom Ursula uses to obtain power over the seas, implying the sea witch simply enjoys causing havoc to the innocent, having no sense of true morality or remorse for those she torments. Apart from this, Ursula may also be cannibalistic, as she was seen eating some sort of tiny sea creature alive.

Ursula was vengeful, holding a vendetta against King Triton for a prolonged period of time, spending her days spying on his relatives to eventually take advantage of them and concoct a scheme capable of ending in her favor - as ruler of the seas. This also ties into Ursula's power-hungry nature, which drives her motivation throughout the film, and is greatly expressed once she finally crowns herself queen during the climax.

Despite Ursula's irredeemable traits, she had a softer side, as seen in her relationship between herself and her minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula lovingly refers to the duo as her "babies" and has been seen to treat them with affection, despite barking orders at the two from time to time when enraged. She was also extremely protective of them, even expressing her (genuine) remorse over killing them with the trident by accident before turning their rage towards Ariel for causing it in the first place. In the TV series, however, she does abuse her minions for failure at times.

Ursula was classy, despite being flamboyant, and presents herself with confidence and an eye for high standards, as evidenced by her belief that lurking in doorways was rude, in addition, she regularly flaunts her curvaceous appearance in a sultry manner, and spends time in her vanity, admiring her own physical appearance. She had the power to alter her appearance, but simply chooses not to, demonstrated contentment with who she was as a person, but distaste with her social status and lack of complete power over the ocean.

Despite Ursula's intelligent and calculating traits, she was extremely arrogant to the point of underestimating her opponents; for example, when she utilized the trident to transform herself into a giant cecaelia, which made her an easy target, she also did not consider Eric a threat, due to her having the trident in her possession and being in her giant cecaelia form respectively, proved to be a fatal mistake; unfortunately, by the time she realized her mistake, regarding her underestimating Eric, it was too late as the latter had (mortally) impaled seconds before she could react.

These negative traits of her were what eventually led to Ursula's painful yet deserved/justified death at the hands of Eric.

In the original film, it is left ambiguous as to whether she actually realized she was evil, although some extension media such as the Disney Villains book has Ursula making clear that she is not only aware of her more infamous reputation among the merfolk, but fully agreed with their assessment.

Physical appearance

Ursula is a plump light lavender-skinned, white-haired cecaelia and from the waist down has six black octopus-like tentacles with violet suckers. Although she has a light complexion, the area around Ursula's eyes is a darker shade than the rest of her skin, in addition to having gray eyes and a mole on the right side of her mouth. She is always seen wearing makeup, in particular, she has aqua blue eye shadow, deep red lipstick, and red nails. She wears purple coral shell earrings and a gold nautilus shell necklace.

Her alter-ego, Vanessa, is a fair-skinned human female with long wavy brown hair and pink lips. Unlike Ursula, Vanessa's eyes are violet instead of gray. She appears in a periwinkle dress with an indigo corset, and black high heels.

Powers and abilities

Ursula's magical abilities, even without the Trident, were very potent. She was able to concoct various potions to create various spells, including mass-transfer (implied during the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls") as well as physically altering people's bodies, as evidenced by her transforming Ariel into a human, as well as her own transformation into Vanessa and Ursula (although in the case of Vanessa, she needed Ariel's voice to disguise her own). However, she was incapable of altering her reflection, which is eventually how her enemies got the drop on her. It is also implied that she was capable of generating storms and may have electrokinetic abilities even prior to gaining the trident, since storm clouds were generated the very second the sunset on the third day, and she utilized lightning bolts from the storm clouds to transform back into her original form. When it comes to physical powers, Ursula possesses Superhuman Strength, though not as strong as Triton, yet strong enough to throw a mermaid towards a rock, as what she did to Ariel in the alternate ending of the movie.

She was also capable of creating poisonous ink clouds which could absorb the energy of the Trident and enhance Ursula's power. Her most dangerous ability, however, was her ability to turn people into polyps should they fail to fulfill their end of the bargain via contracts, having done so multiple times under unspecified circumstances, nearly did so with Ariel, and successfully did so with Triton. It's also implied that she absorbs their souls while transforming them into polyps, making herself more powerful in the process. Likewise, once the contract is made, it is indestructible even to someone as powerful as Triton.

Presumably, this arcane power is one-way, as she does not end up becoming a polyp for failing to fulfill her end of the contract. In fact, the only way to completely stop a contract short of fulfilling it is via her death, as evidenced when the polyps turned back into merpeople by the aftermath of her death at the hands of Prince Eric.

Appearances

“Flotsam! Jetsam! I want you to keep an extra close watch on this pretty little daughter of his... She may be the key to Triton's undoing.”

―Ursula

Ursula manipulating Ariel.

When Ursula first appears in the film, she secretly watches over King Triton's youngest daughter, Ariel, believing her to be "the key to Triton's undoing". With time, Ursula's assumptions are proven correct, as Ariel one day meets and falls in love with a human prince, named Eric, against Triton's explicit rules. Ursula commands Flotsam and Jetsam to lure Ariel to her lair, claiming that only she can help make the princess' dreams of living on the surface, beside her apparent true love, a reality. Through the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula proposes an agreement where she will transform Ariel into a human for three days, during which Ariel must receive the "kiss of true love" from Eric. If Ariel succeeds, her transformation into a human will be permanent, but if she fails, she will turn back into a mermaid and be bound to Ursula for eternity. The price for the transformation is Ariel's voice (which Ursula will keep no matter what happens), saying that Eric and other men prefer for women to never speak or sing and a voice is useless in a romantic relationship—in other words, women are to be quiet in the presence of a man and that men repulse at the hearing of a woman's "constant blabber, gossip and idle prattle". Despite her reluctance, Ariel agrees and signs an unbreakable contract that Ursula has conjured.

Vanessa, Ursula's human disguise.

As Ursula orders Ariel to sing, the sea witch summons magical hands to rip out Ariel's voice, which is then magically pulled into Ursula's shell necklace. She then laughs gleefully as Ariel is transformed into a human then is taken ashore by her friends Flounder and Sebastian. During the time that Ariel is a human and must win a kiss from Eric in order to remain human permanently, Ursula takes every measure to prevent the kiss from occurring, such as when Flotsam and Jetsam tip over the boat in which Ariel and Eric are sitting on as the two are close to kissing. Realizing that Ariel is doing a much better job earning Eric’s love than she thought and fearing that they may actually share a kiss before the deadline, Ursula decides to take matters into her own tentacles. With intent to sabotage Ariel's relationship with Eric, Ursula takes the form of a beautiful human female with Ariel's voice. Under the alias "Vanessa", Ursula bewitches Eric to marry her. However, Ariel's seagull companion, Scuttle, discovers Ursula's villainy and quickly alerts Ariel, who is helped to the ship by Flounder and Sebastian, who rushes off to alert the king.

Ursula crowns herself queen.

Before she can completely misdirect Eric into marrying her (just so he won’t kiss Ariel and thus be able use Ariel for her evil plan), Scuttle is able to stall the wedding for the time being with help from birds and sea animals. In the battle, Ursula, is attacked by all the birds and sea animals and eventually violently bitten in the bottom by Eric’s dog Max forcing her to let go of Scuttle, allowing him to destroy the Nautilus shell containing Ariel's voice, which breaks the enchantment upon Eric’s mind and returning Ariel's voice back to its rightful owner. However, the sun sets before Ariel and Eric can kiss and Ariel changes back into a mermaid. Ursula, restored to her normal form, grabs Ariel and jumps back into the sea with her, where she is confronted by King Triton. Ursula reveals her true goal and forces Triton to choose between his freedom and his daughter's. Triton agrees to take Ariel's place, and once Triton is transformed into a polyp, Ursula takes his crown and trident. Furious with Ursula's trickery, Ariel attacks the sea witch, who immediately retaliates and threatens to destroy the former with the power of the trident. Before she can, Ursula is attacked with a harpoon by Prince Eric. Flotsam and Jetsam are sent to capture the prince and successfully do so while dragging him down into the sea. Ursula readies a killing shot for Eric, but Ariel grabs hold of her hair, thus redirecting the blast towards Flotsam and Jetsam—killing them.

Ursula with the ship rammed into her.

Saddened and enraged by the death of her minions, Ursula seeks vengeance on Ariel and magically alters herself to a massive size. With her new form, Ursula declares herself as ruler of the entire ocean and creates a powerful storm. Eric takes control of a surfaced ship while Ursula's attention is only focused on Ariel. As Ursula wickedly taunts the idea of "true love" and prepares to kill Ariel using the power of the trident, Eric impales the sea witch by plunging his ship's splintered bow through her abdomen. As Ursula screams in pain, the bow catches lightning, brutally and fatally electrocuting her body. As Ursula loses her last ounces of life, she drops onto the ship with the trident and sinks into the sea. The polyps in her garden then watch as her dismembered body remains sink to the ocean floor. After Ursula's fate was sealed, all of her magical spells died causing the merfolk that had been under her power, including Triton, are released from their bonds and transform back into their true forms and with Ursula and her minions gone for good, Ariel was able to become human again, allowing her and Eric to kiss for the very first time, marry, and live happily ever after.

Ursula appears as the main villain of the Little Mermaid prequel television series, (which takes place one year prior to her death in the original film). The episodes she appears in are "Against the Tide", "Tail of Two Crabs", "Heroes", and "Ariel's Treasures". In all of these episodes, she executes various plans to antagonize King Triton and take over Atlantica.

In "Against the Tide", Ursula has been experiencing failures in her most recent magic spells. She believes it to be the work of an odd sea creature that is said to cause bad luck whenever it's around. Ursula decides to destroy the creature, but Ariel rescues it, as she believes it to be harmless. Eventually, the creature's whereabouts have been located at Triton's palace, and Ursula invades the palace during King Triton's homecoming. She prepares to eliminate the beast by using the stolen magic of the trident, though Sebastian was clever enough to make a makeshift version of the creature, and trick Ursula into destroying it instead. With the beast supposedly gone, Ursula departs.

In "Tail of Two Crabs", Ursula takes advantage of Sebastian's jealousy towards his rival Zeus the Crab, by transforming into Sebastian's "Fairy God Crab". She offers him a wish if he can recover a rare artifact holding great power. Sebastian delivers, and Ursula is able to turn King Triton, Flounder, and Ariel into sea worms. Luckily, Zeus is able to subdue Ursula and revert her curse.

In "Heroes", Apollo, a legendary hero who once saved Atlantica from Ursula and her army of octopi, returns to Atlantica, just when Ursula decides to revive her old army in an attempt to dominate Atlantica once more. Like the previous battle, however, Apollo prevails with the help of the fire-breathing Sea Dragon. It is also implied in this episode that the reason behind her exile was because she tried to create copies of the Trident, referred to as dark tridents, for the aforementioned army against Atlantica.

Lastly in "Ariel's Treasures", Ursula enchants the human items in Ariel's grotto, in an attempt to wreak havoc on Atlantica.

Ursula doesn't actually appear in this direct-to-video sequel, but she makes a cameo and is mentioned various times, mostly by her sister Morgana, also a Cecelia (who has eight tentacles instead of Ursula's six).

Ursula, herself, can be seen in a picture within Morgana's lair. Interestingly, she serves as the driving force for Morgana's story arc, though not exactly in the sense of revenge. Rather, Morgana feels eliminating Triton and stealing the throne would prove her superiority over her sister, as the former spent most of her life in Ursula's shadow.

At the end of the film, after Morgana is imprisoned frozen in an iceberg and forced to sink to the darkest depths of the sea, the framed picture of Ursula makes one last appearance, sinking alongside her.

In the deleted, yet fully animated song "Gonna Get My Wish", a younger Ursula makes a brief appearance in the form of a flashback, alongside Morgana and their mother. The scene also gives a visual representation of Ursula's past and relationship with Morgana. In their youth, Ursula wears a purple bow tied to her hair.

She was also part of the all-female guest list in the episode "Ladies' Night".

In the episode "House of Crime", Goofy interrogates Vanessa, asking if she has seen any disguised villains. She silently shakes her head and then transforms back into Ursula when Goofy leaves her table.

Live-action appearances

Sea goddess

The Evil Queen posing as Ursula.

This first Ursula is a mythical sea goddess who is considered a myth by merfolk as she hasn't been seen for a thousand years. This identity appears in the episode "Ariel", wherein the episode, the Ariel prays to her for guidance so she can be able to continue her life as a human and forever be with Prince Eric. Using this opportunity, the Evil Queen appears as Ursula to Ariel and gives her a magic bracelet that gives the wearer Ariel's tail in exchange for their legs. Ariel, in an act of gratitude for Snow White's earlier help, gives the bracelet to Snow so that she can live her life free from the Queen while Ariel gets to be with Eric.

However, Snow White tries to tell Ariel that Ursula isn't real. Much to Ariel's shock, Regina shows up and admits this was a way to get Snow using Ariel. She then gives Ariel an ultimatum: leave Snow with Regina and live happily with Prince Eric or perish along with Snow. Ariel appears to choose the first choice, but then stabs Regina with a fork and removes the bracelet from Snow, who then escapes with Ariel into the water. After delivering Snow safely onto land, Ariel returns to tell Eric how she feels, but when she attempts to speak, she discovers that her voice is missing. Regina, standing on the docks, reveals she had taken her voice so Ariel can never tell Prince Eric how she truly feels. Ariel becomes devastated, and Regina proceeds to tell Ariel to leave.

Ursula's statue.

When Regina returns to her castle, she looks into her mirror and discovers Ursula herself, proving that Ursula is indeed real. Ursula then grabs Regina with her tentacles through the mirror itself, threatening a fearful Regina to never pose as her again, or she will prove to Regina "just how real she is", before subsequently letting her go and disappearing.

Although Ursula's physical appearance is largely based on the Disney version, her personality is closer to that of the original Hans Christian Andersen tale, being largely a neutral entity, although will get vengeful when someone poses as her.

Sea Witch

Ursula in the fourth season of Once Upon a Time.

A second Ursula appeared as one of the main antagonists in the second half of the fourth season, played by actress Merrin Dungey while Tiffany Boone played the young Ursula. She made her season four début in the episode "Heroes and Villains". She was originally a mermaid princess and the daughter of King Poseidon, named after the original sea goddess. Her back-story is similar to Ariel (from the movie) because she had a beautiful singing voice and lost her mother who had been killed by a pirate. Her father developed a xenophobic grudge against humans and use the voice talent of Ursula to lure sailors to their doom. However, she refused to attack the Jolly Roger, saving Captain Hook and his crew. In grudge with her father, she steals a magic bracelet from his vault, allowing her to become human. She becomes a pub singer and befriended Hook. However, Hook had concluded a pact with Poseidon to trap her singing voice within an enchanted shell in exchange for squid ink, to neutralize his nemesis Rumplestiltskin. Instead, Ursula herself steals the ink from the vault for him just as her father arrives to take the procured item away.

Angered that the ink has been crushed, Hook removes her voice so the King can never use her to sink another ship again. Betrayed and developing great hate against the human and her father, Ursula decided she no longer wanted to be a mermaid and used her father's trident to transform her fishtail into tentacles, becoming the Sea Witch. Later, Ursula is invited to the Forbidden Fortress by Rumplestiltskin, where she meets Cruella De Vil and Maleficent. Rumple used the three villainesses to get the Dark Curse, but the witches, in turn, had to face the Chernabog. Later, she becomes good friends with the two witches and the three became associates. They work together to steal a magical gauntlet from Rumplestiltskin, capable of revealing the weaknesses of their enemies. Once they learn this crucial information, they'll be able to come out on top, having had enough of constantly facing defeat. To do so, the villains kidnapped Rumple's servant, Belle, and held her for ransom. Once Rumple arrived at the transaction point, Belle was covered in Ursula's tentacles to prevent her from escaping. Her grasp increased with time due to Rumple's hesitation, but once the Dark One handed over the gauntlet, Belle was released. Later, she, Cruella, and Maleficent ask for help from Snow White and Prince Charming in stopping the Evil Queen. But once their plan fails, Ursula asks if she can choke the duo with her tentacles, claiming that they are bored. She and Cruella remained Maleficent's primary associates (and somewhat henchmen) and guarded the cave in which Maleficent rested with her unborn child. After the baby is stolen by the heroes they previously worked with, Ursula and Cruella chase them down, where they end up being transported to the Land Without Magic, using the magic from dragon egg containing the baby to stay young.

Many years later after the Dark Curse, Ursula was seen in the Land Without Magic working as an aquarium worker in New York feeding the fish there. Mr. Gold finds her (after being forced out of Storybrooke by Belle) and offers her a chance to get even with the heroes and find the Author. They then head out to find Cruella De Vil and Maleficent. Ursula and Mr. Gold find Cruella De Vil in Long Island. Upon using Mr. Gold's cellphone, Ursula and Cruella make a deal with Regina to let them into Storybrooke in exchange for info on how to defeat the Chernabog. After the Chernabog disappeared upon being thrown over the town line, Ursula and Cruella were invited into Storybrooke. Later that night, Ursula and Cruella get Mr. Gold back into Storybrooke and work to bring Maleficent back from the dead.

Ursula regains her singing voice.

But soon her intentions drift when she sees Hook in the forest so Ursula heads out to confront him, where he agrees to give back her singing voice so she can tell him about Mr. Gold's plans. Since the shell that trapped her voice is in the Enchanted Forest aboard the Jolly Roger, she uses a piece of the ship's rigging to open a portal and cross realms to bring the vehicle to Storybrooke's harbor. She succeeds, however, the ship arrives shrunken and encased in a bottle. From Will, it is restored to normal size with a magic essence. Below the ship deck, Hook gives Ursula the shell containing her singing voice, but she is unable to reabsorb it. Disappointed, she considers her happy ending is still impossible without the Author's help, causing her to void her deal with Hook, who pulls a gun on her. She easily knocks him out and throws him into the water before returning to the cabin. There, she assaults Mary Margaret, who arrived with Emma and David to rescue August. As Ursula refuses to relent, Hook returns with her father, Poseidon, who can restore her voice since he originally enchanted the shell. Poseidon apologizes to Ursula for using her singing voice as a weapon and he expresses regret over not cherishing her gift to honor her mother's memory. After regaining her voice, Ursula fully reconciles with her father and decides to go home with him. Before leaving, she tells Hook about Mr. Gold's scheme to dethrone Emma as savior and make her evil. As Ursula explains, Emma gave everyone their happy endings in this world, and once she is not the savior anymore, only then the Author can give the villains what they want.

Ursula appears in the sequel only making a cameo, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. She unleashes one of her tentacles on the pirate gang and orders them and Uma to be quiet and tells them that the dishes are not gonna wash themselves. She often likes to stay home and watch soap operas.

Live-action remake

Ursula is slated to appear in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, where she will be portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, and it has been confirmed that McCarthy has already recorded her rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls".

Printed material

An illustration of Ursula.

In the first two issues of the official The Little Mermaid comic, Ursula appears briefly to negotiate with a race of eel-men for the carcass of a Leviathan which she would convert into the home seen in the 1989 film. She also briefly appears in a segment of the fourth issue, where she tries to create a new hairstyle to entertain her due to banishment from Atlantica making her lonely on her birthday, but it backfired on her. She doesn't appear in the Marvel Comics serial for The Little Mermaid, although a character similar to her appears known as Pirhaia in the penultimate issue. Ursula frequently appears in Ariel's comics in the Disney Princess magazines, often in a villainous role. In the Disney Press book The Villain Files, it is implied that Ursula is Ariel's aunt, a concept that is based on the abandoned story concept of the 1989 film.

Ursula is first mentioned in the saga in the third book when a cast member says Tigger was spying on her. In the fifth book, she appears at Typhoon Lagoon when King Triton is talking with Finn. She has the power of the water and even creates a whirlpool where Finn almost drowns. She also appears on the cover of Kingdom Keepers V: Shell Game. In the seventh book, it is revealed that she has been disguised as Storey Ming ever since the Keepers went on their Disney Cruise through the Panama Canal.

Ursula is mentioned in the second novel The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by author Serena Valentino. In the novel, it is mentioned that Ursula lives in a kingdom adjacent to that of Belle and the Prince, and when the Prince dumps his fiancée prior to Belle, she attempts to drown herself. Ursula then rescues her and trades her life for her beauty. The Enchantress then goes to Ursula to convince her to give up her deal in exchange for something else. In the end, she convinces her.

Ursula is at the center of the third Disney novel by Serena Valentino in a series that explores the untold backstories of famous Disney villains. It was released on July 26, 2016.

Ursula was the adopted daughter of a human fisherman and she grew up unaware of her powers or that she was King Triton's long-lost sister. After her powers were exposed the people in her village turned on her and attempted to burn her, her father tried to stop them but was killed in the process. From that moment on, Ursula was driven by the hatred of the people in the village and grief for the loss of her father. After attempting to destroy the village, King Triton reveals himself to be her brother and takes her home to his kingdom. But Ursula is not allowed to be around her brother's subjects in her octopus form, because he thinks she is ugly and a true monster. The only person who treats Ursula with kindness is Triton's wife Queen Athena, and she has heated discussions with her husband on Ursula's behalf. But after Athena's death, Ursula is banished to the Unprotected Waters by Triton. She tells her story to The Odd Sisters and they agree to help her kill Triton and in return, she will find their younger sister Circe.

Unfortunately little do the sisters know, Circe is in Ursula's Garden of Lost Souls.

It is revealed that Ursula has a heated rivalry with Maleficent, the Dark Fairy.

A Twisted Tale: Part of Your World

In A Twisted Tale: Part of Your World, Ariel was never able to regain her voice and was forced to leave Ursula with the transformed Triton while she returned to Atlantica with the trident. Now apparently permanently in the form of Vanessa, Ursula used her new position to work on expanding the influence of Eric's kingdom through subtle military campaigns and other strategies, while also carrying out research to grant herself magic powers on land (her existing influence only possible due to a spell she cast while still in the ocean tied to Ariel's voice).

When Ariel returns to the surface a few years later after one of Scuttle's relatives reveals that Triton is still alive, she is able to reclaim her voice and begin a campaign against Ursula. Although Ursula appears to be able to anticipate and thwart Ariel and Eric's attempts to undermine her as she prepares a ritual to sacrifice Triton and gain new power, Ariel is eventually able to stop her by provoking Ursula to turn back into her true self in full view of the people of Eric's kingdom by dowsing her with water from a fountain linked to the sea, Ariel then using the same fountain to give herself the power to kill Ursula with the trident.

Video games

Ursula is the final boss of all the Little Mermaid video games which were contemporary with the film's original release, from the versions on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis to the Tiger LCD handheld version. In addition, she has appeared in several multi-franchise Disney video games.

Ursula is a recurring villain in four installments of the Kingdom Hearts series. Originally, she was a member of the legion of Disney villains led by Maleficent who sought to dominate the worlds via the power of darkness and control over fearsome creatures known as the Heartless.

In Kingdom Hearts, Ursula is able to manipulate Ariel into handing over the trident, wanting to use it to take control of the ocean. However, due to the efforts of the game's protagonists Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Ursula is defeated and vanishes into the darkness, alongside other villains who were slain by Sora and Co.

In Chain of Memories, Ursula makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as a figment of Sora's memories, using Flounder to force Ariel into giving her the trident, claiming she'll have the guppy killed if she refuses.

Ursula returns yet again in Kingdom Hearts II, where she returns from the darkness and offers Ariel her dream to live upon the surface in exchange for her voice. The plot that follows mirrors the original film, and upon Ursula's acquisition of the trident, she becomes a monstrous giant and tries to eliminate Ariel, as well as Sora and friends. However, with their new ally, Prince Eric, Ursula is defeated and sealed yet again.

An apparition of Ursula appears in Dream Drop Distance as the first boss in the game. She is, suddenly attacking Sora and Riku with her tentacles and magic as the heroes were on their way to the Mark of Mastery exam. When Ursula is defeated and sealed, but she used her whirlpool to drag Sora and Riku underwater and towards the Keyhole to Destiny Islands and the entrance to the Sleeping Worlds, beginning their new journey. How Ursula came of being is unknown, though her motives were to simply have revenge on Sora.

Along with other toons, Ursula had her essence drained by Mizrabel and into a wasteland. Unlike the other villains, she had no affiliation to Mizrabel whatsoever. When Mickey found her and explained it was Mizrabel's fault for this second "banishment", Ursula demanded to know where the witch was to prove there was only room for 1 witch: herself. As Mickey didn't know, she was directed to the fortress to scheme against Mizrabel. She asks for a cauldron in exchange for not harming any of the other toons Mickey saved; she keeps her end of the bargain.

A stage musical version of the 1989 film debuted in Denver for a pre-Broadway tryout, and in January 2008 opened on Broadway. Actress Sherie Rene Scott originated the live role. The role was later played by Heidi Blickenstaff and Faith Prince. The show closed on Broadway Aug.30, 2009.

In this version, Ursula is King Triton's sister. As revealed in the lyrics of Ursula's song "I Want the Good Times Back", (later replaced with "Daddy's Little Angel") when their father died, the pair were given an equal share of the sea plus two magical items. Triton received the trident while Ursula received the magic Nautilus shell. Though the two were to rule the seas together, Ursula's greed and use of dark magic to usurp Triton led to her being banished. Her need for revenge is her motivation for the show.

Unlike the 1989 film, Ursula is depicted as being large but not obese, and the entire subplot where Ursula transforms into a human has been removed entirely. In the show's finale, Ursula is defeated by Ariel, not Eric, when the mermaid destroys Ursula's magical shell since the climax in which Ursula becomes a gargantuan monster and then impaled by the bow of a ship is too expensive and impractical for a staged show.

Ursula sings new songs in addition to the film's "Poor Unfortunate Souls". These songs are "I Want the Good Times Back", in which Ursula reminisces over her luxurious past, "Her Voice", in which Ursula anticipates the sunset of the third day and a reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in which Ursula 'negotiates' an agreement with Triton for Ariel's soul. Ursula also sings briefly at the end of a new sequence called "The Contest", in which Ariel's voice can be heard as the sun sets, but is then merged with Ursula's own voice.

When the show was heavily revamped for the national tour, Ursula's song "I Want the Good Times Back", was deleted in favor of a new song "Daddy's Little Angel", which gives her a new backstory. In this new history, Ursula was the youngest of seven sisters, who born as a Cecelia, and not a mermaid disgusted her father Poseidon. Out of jealousy she murders her six older sisters, and becomes Queen, only for Triton, who in this new book is the younger brother, comes of age, and deposes and exiles her.

An earlier demo workshop contained different songs written for Ursula that was eventually removed from the production. Ursula's introductory song is "Wasting Away", though it was later replaced by "I Want the Good Times Back". A different reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was written for Ursula just before she transforms into Vanessa, but since the Vanessa subplot was removed, so was the reprise. Another song, "All Good Things Must End" features Ursula gloating on her victory over Ariel, but the song was removed entirely. Emily Skinner performed as Ursula in this workshop.

The Fantasmic! show debuted in 1992 in the California park, only a few years after The Little Mermaid debuted. Ursula appears in the finale, summoning the powers of the sea to destroy Mickey Mouse, though she herself is ultimately beaten. Originally, a twenty-foot Audio-Animatronic Ursula float traveled around her segment in the show on the water, but the air constantly leaked from the blow-up tentacles, and the animatronic as a whole was a maintenance nightmare, so currently, the character is only featured via animation projected onto water screens.

In the 2015 rendition of World of Color, Ursula was featured during the brief montage celebrating villains. She also appeared in the 2019 version called Villainous.

In Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Ursula appears as an audio-animatronic living the same role as the film. After she strikes her deal with Ariel, the rest of her scenes are showcased on a screen where it shows her transforming into Vanessa, becoming a giant and her death.

In Disney's Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic!, Ursula has a much smaller role compared to the original, taking part in the ensemble of villains.

At the Magic Kingdom, Ursula serves as one of the Fantasyland villains for the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, where Hades revives her from her death and recruits her to steal a piece of the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom. However, like Maleficent, she plots to double-cross him and take the piece for herself. Once the piece is in her possession, Ursula plots to flood Cinderella Castle and rest of the Magic Kingdom so that she may dominate the park along with the rest of the seas. Likewise, in a similar manner to her transforming into Vanessa, she also disguises herself as Ariel at one point in an attempt to deceive Merlin and the guests into aiding her in her goal. She returns during the final battle with Hades. In the end, the park guests to defeat Ursula and the other villains by trapping them in the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom.

Ursula also appears in the Happily Ever After fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, where she transforms to a monstrous size with the trident at hand during the Adversity sequence. Ultimately, Prince Eric manages to defeat her by throwing a spear at her, in which the Ursula scene loops into the Pride Rock scene.

Ursula makes an appearance during the final scene of The Nightmare Experiment, where she magically alters her size as she did in the film.

Ursula also appears during the climactic montage of the 2016 version of Villains Night Out!. In 2017, she was added to the parade portion of the show and appeared as a face character alongside the Evil Queen and Jafar.

Ursula plays the part she did in the original film, first appearing in the ride's Poor Unfortunate Souls scene, represented by an 8-foot tall, 12-foot wide animatronic, to turn Ariel into a human. Her defeat is one of the last scenes of the attraction.

Ursula's animatronic is one of the most detailed that the Disney Imagineers have ever created. It was designed to move more fluidity than the average AA and gradually apart of one of the Disney Parks' greatest achievements of the year.

Trivia

As her death scene reveals, Ursula actually appears to have a skeleton, despite having a lower body of an octopus (as octopuses are cephalopods and do not have bones).

Ursula's death is one of Disney's most violent defeats when she is impaled by Prince Eric's ship. When Ursula is sinking, blood is clearly visible on the top of the ocean. She is also one of a few villains to be electrocuted with Jafar, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Roscoe and DeSoto being the others.

In the original story, Ursula (simply known as "the Sea Witch") was not malevolent, but rather neutral. She was also a minor character only appearing once. In the film, while she was a cecaelia she is not an animal but rather hideously ugly. In the film, she never met Ariel's sisters but in the original story, she did.

"Ursula" is a Latin word meaning "little female bear".

Despite being half-octopus, Ursula only has six tentacles. However, if her arms are counted as limbs as well, then she actually does have eight limbs altogether.

Although Ursula is usually depicted with light lavender skin, her appearance as a child in both the family photo and the song "Gonna Get My Wish" indicated that her natural skin color was actually light green colored similar to Morgana and their mother.

Ursula's blood's color is dark blue like cephalopods, as shown briefly when Eric's Harpoon scratches her arm but appears black due to how dark it was.

The final battle with Ursula was intended to play out very differently than in the final film. First, Ariel initially succeeds in getting herself out of Ursula's grip, only for Flotsam and Jetsam to retrieve her. Also, she was to have accidentally killed Flotsam and Jetsam without any feelings of remorse or horror at what she had done, and her manner of death involved being impaled with the Trident by Eric before he passes out. The reason for the change was because Jeffrey Katzenberg had seen the Bruce Willis action thriller film Die Hard during the film's development, and advised that they "make the ending more like Die Hard." On a related note, Ariel's voice was to be released to her after Ursula was killed.

The animators created the character of Ursula for Bea Arthur, who declined as she was occupied with The Golden Girls. Jennifer Saunders then auditioned for the role of Ursula but was turned down. Then Nancy Marchand, Nancy Wilson, Roseanne Barr, Charlotte Rae, and Elaine Stritch were all then considered. Then Stritch was cast in the part, but her style clashed with that of lyricist Howard Ashman, so Pat Carroll got the part.

Ursula's physical appearance was actually based on that of the late-great drag queen Divine who died in 1988 while the film was still in production.

As mentioned several times in this article, an original draft of the film was actually going to make Ursula as King Triton's sister, which would have made her Ariel's paternal aunt, as well as predate Scar as being the first Disney villain to be related to the protagonist biologically had it been kept. Whether it was kept as canon in the main franchise is debatable, although both the TV series and Return to the Sea strongly imply otherwise, where they made an entire race based on Ursula's design and she had a sister and a mother who were not merpeople, respectively.

In the book Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files, it's revealed that Ursula was originally more slender in her youth[1] and got to the size she's seen within the film due to overindulging on the gourmet meals at the palace. The musical also makes it clear that the lavish meals are what she misses most about her old life.

In one of the Little Mermaid stories, "Reflections of Arsulu", Ursula disguises herself as Arsulu (an anagram of her original name), a beautiful blonde mermaid with a red tail and magenta shells. She does this in order to gain entry to Atlantica, where she causes a great deal of discord. Ariel finds out about her whole plan and uses a mirror and a flock of goldfish to foil Ursula's plan by showing her family Arsulu's real reflection.

Just before departing with Ariel in the climax to the movie, Ursula says to Prince Eric "So long, lover boy!" in a very suggestive tone and manner, which alongside her portrayal as Vanessa during the third day suggests she may have had sexual relations with him after brainwashing him. This would technically make her the first Disney Villain to commit sexual assault due to Eric not actually having a choice in the matter.

Due to the sea witch and temple princess characters being merged into one as well as being made villainous in characterization in the Disney version, Ursula, or more accurately Vanessa has a very similar role to the False Prophet from the Book of Revelations.